Rio Grande hand ferry evokes lost age on U.S. border

By Ed Stoddard

LOS EBANOS, Texas (Reuters) - A trip across the Rio Grande on a hand-operated ferry is a brief one. It covers about 70 yards but it takes you back 70 years to a different era on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Able to fit three cars plus a few passengers, the hand-pulled ferry between the dusty Texas town of Los Ebanos and the Mexican town of Diaz Ordaz is the last of its kind.

Its future is uncertain as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security surveys the region to erect a fence, which the government says is needed to stem the tide of illegal immigration from the south.

The modest ferry is vital for local people who otherwise would have a 60-mile round trip to the nearest bridge crossing, in Rio Grande City, and is the last of its kind on a border where small, informal crossings are fast being closed to tighten security.

No decision has been taken to close the ferry crossing, which is the smallest of eight official ports of entry into southeast Texas from Mexico, although it provides a rare glimpse of a fast vanishing world.

"It's important otherwise you have to go around," said Nelly Cline, who works in a store near the crossing.

Local people pay $1.25 for a round trip over the river on the ferry, which is hauled by five burly men using a pulley system.

Sitting in a small kiosk, the ferry's operator, Mark Alvarez, sells tickets for the crossing, which has been in operation since 1950. It takes 50 cars or more a day, mostly Mexicans who use it to come to the United States for work or to visit family, although some tourists also use it.